Dakn داكِنْ Interview

July 17, 2017

We caught up with Dakn داكِنْ a producer from Ramallah, Palestine and rising talent of the Middle East electronic music scene, to talk about his musical experiences and some of the exciting artists and sounds coming from the region.

Tell us a bit about your musical journey.

In 2004, I started writing rap verses, which first taught me about music.

I was introduced to Fruityloops which lead me to experiment with beats and get closer to the sounds I like. I have been heavily influenced by a wide range of genres like hip hop, metal, noise, UK garage, techno, jungle, Arabic tarab and Grime. I was influenced by artists such as, Squarepusher, Mira Calix, Amin Tobin, Stephen Bodzin, Alex Stein, Victor Ruiz, Dj Fresh, Massive Attack and Portishead.

You produce in a variety of genres, including for rappers how would you describe your sound?

Producing was actually my first experience with making music and I did not grow up playing any instruments at all. I can’t easily narrow down my style to one description. I would describe it as dynamic, different and experimental. Every track is different to me because it projects a certain energy and describes something specific within. Every track I produce mirrors the diverse energies I go through on a daily basis.

Tell us about the music scene in Ramallah.

The scene in Ramallah and generally in Palestine has changed over the past few years. Djs are introducing different genres to the scene and local musicians are making music such as noise, experimental music, hip hop, techno, drum and base, grime etc… To name a few: Mukta-feen, Makimakkuk, Al Nather, Muqata’a, Julmud, Haykal and myself are solo artists and producers that go under an art collective called “-1”’ (Saleb Wahad). There are also others such as Tashweesh and Dirar Kalash.

There seems to be a lot of interesting things happening with electronic music in the Middle East. What other artists should we be listening to?

Electronic Music in the ME is differently expanding. I would recommend artists such as Hello Psychaleppo from Syria,